Seek Calliope Plans
By Robbie Rhodes
Remember the thread about the Wilhelm Bruder barrel organ in Italy? We received several intriguing photo images from Giovanni Zanin which Jody placed on the Foxtail FTP site. See Digest 970126 and subsequent. The images are at the foxtail FTP archive at
ftp://ftp.foxtail.com/pub/mechanical-music/misc/zanin.jpg ( 18kb)
ftp://ftp.foxtail.com/pub/mechanical-music/misc/zanin1.jpg (160kb)
ftp://ftp.foxtail.com/pub/mechanical-music/misc/zanin2.jpg (140kb)
ftp://ftp.foxtail.com/pub/mechanical-music/misc/zanin3.jpg ( 97kb)
Giovanni's command of English is limited, but nonetheless we have been corresponding since then. He and his elder brother manage the family organ-building business, Organi Zanin, in Codroipo, Italy, which I think is a suburb of the big city of Udine, not far from Austria and Slovenia.
This is no small-time operation -- they have twenty employees and provide new organs and restoration services to churches in Italy and Austria. Photographs of the factory and organs indicate that the Zanin family produces first-class organs!
So imagine my surprise when he wrote last night asking if I could help locate plans to make a player calliope, either steam- or air-powered ! Then, a few hours later, he sent this addendum explaining why:
"Dear Robbie, when I send you the story of my Family I forget to say
you many thank for the Calliope information. I want make a Calliope for
many reasons. I look for a Barrel Calliope or Paper Calliope. Is this
possibile? Is possibile pictures and a book with many pictures?
"I want make a Calliope for the Fair of my city. Last year with the
Bruder organ I collect in 9 hour 3,000 USD for disabled babys. In the
next time I send the photo with the babys and the Bruder and me.
"Many thanks, your Giovanni.
PS in Italy nobody see a Calliope!"
Three-thousand bucks in nine hours of turning the crank ! Organi Zanin knows fund-raising as well as organ-building.
So I am writing this note to Mechanical Music Digest to seek help to fulfill Giovanni's request:
1. Where can I obtain the plans to make an air calliope, like a Tangley or National calliope? With a player action, of course.
2. What music rolls sound really good on a calliope? The A-rolls which I've heard are really meant for piano, and I hope that true organ arrangements exist.
3. Are there plans anywhere for a steam calliope? I'm sure that Organi Zanin (aided by a steam-fitter) could build anything from drawings.
4. Anything?? Yes, maybe Organi Zanin might like to make a replica of Joshua C. Stoddard's original barrel-operated player calliope, which is pictured in Bowers' "Encyclopedia" on page 840. The accompanying text from a newspaper article of 1859 says,
"Various are the uses to which it is suggested that the power of the
calliope be applied, amongst others as a means of conveying the orders
of a general on the field of battle by signals to be heard by the whole
army. ... A lighthouse on the coast of Nova Scotia is provided with a
calliope for making signals. ..."
5. Could somebody with the "Encyclopedia" and a scanner please send an image of Stoddard's barrel calliope to Giovanni at <zanin@qnet.conecta.it> He will love it!
6. What books should Giovanni get? Where are they available?
(I'm already humming an Italian Tarantela; it should sound great on a steamer! :-)
Robbie Rhodes |
(Message sent Wed 12 Mar 1997, 09:11:49 GMT, from time zone GMT-0800.) |
|
|
Mechanical
Music Digest™ Archives
